How to get your business on Google Maps
Getting onto Google Maps means creating a Google Business Profile. It is free, it takes about twenty minutes, and for any business whose customers are nearby it is the single most valuable thing you can do online. The map results sit above the ordinary search results, and they are fed by the profile rather than by your website.
The setup is easy. Verification is where people get stuck, and ranking afterwards is where most give up. This covers all three.
Setting it up
Go to google.com/business and sign in with the Google account you want to own this profile for the long term. Use a business account rather than a personal one you share, because moving ownership later is more painful than getting it right now.
Enter the business name exactly as it appears on your van, your invoices and your website. Not with extra words bolted on. Adding your town or your service to the name is against Google's guidelines, is a common reason for suspension, and competitors report it.
Choose a primary category carefully, because it does more to decide what you appear for than anything else on the profile. Be specific: Electrician rather than Contractor. You can add secondary categories afterwards for the other things you do.
If you work at customers' premises rather than your own, set it up as a service-area business. Google takes your address for verification but never publishes it, and you list the towns you cover instead. That is the right setup for most trades and it keeps your home address off the internet.
Verification, and what to do when it will not work
Google has to confirm the business is real. Historically that was a postcard with a code. Increasingly it is a video, and for service-area businesses a video is often the only option offered.
The video has to be one continuous unedited recording that shows three things: that you are at the location or area you claimed, that the business is real and operating, and that you are authorised to manage it. In practice that means walking from something that identifies the location, to your equipment, tools, stock or signage, to something with your name on it, without stopping the recording.
The parts people fail on are ordinary. Street signage, a visible house number or a recognisable landmark to establish location. Branded tools, a signwritten van or stock to establish the business. A business document, an invoice header or a bank card in the business name to establish authority. Do not edit it, do not cut between clips, and do not narrate over footage filmed earlier.
If your street sign is far from the property, start on the nearest identifiable landmark and walk continuously to your door. If verification is rejected, you can usually try again with a different method, and appeals do succeed. The one thing that reliably fails is trying to skip it: an unverified profile does not appear in the map results at all.
Filling it in properly
Categories, service area and hours are the ones that affect whether you appear. Fill in every service you offer as a separate service entry rather than burying them in the description. Add your website. Add a phone number that is answered.
The description does not affect ranking much, but it is read by customers. Do not put a URL or prices in it, because Google rejects both and will not always tell you why.
Photographs matter more than people expect. Profiles with real photographs of real work get more calls than profiles with a logo and nothing else. Add a few, then keep adding.
Getting into the top three
The map results show three businesses before anyone has to tap for more, and the gap between third and fourth is enormous. Three things decide it: relevance, distance and prominence.
Relevance is your categories and services matching what was searched. This is the part you control most directly and the part most people fill in carelessly.
Distance is how close you are to the searcher. You cannot change it, and it is why a business in the next town outranks you for searches made there. This is also why claiming an honest service area beats claiming the whole county.
Prominence is how well known the business is: reviews, mentions, links and consistency of your name, address and phone number across the web. Reviews are the lever most within reach. Ask every satisfied customer, ask on the day the job finishes, and send them the direct review link rather than asking them to search for you.
The things that get profiles suspended
Keywords stuffed into the business name. Fake addresses, including a virtual office or a relative's house you do not work from. Multiple profiles for one business at one location. Reviews you have written, bought, or incentivised.
Suspension is reversible but slow, and while it lasts you are invisible in the map results. None of the short cuts are worth it.
Common questions
- Is a Google Business Profile free?
- Yes, entirely. There is no paid tier and no way to pay for a better map position. Anybody who rings offering to secure your Google listing for a monthly fee is either selling you management you may not need or running a straightforward scam.
- Can I have a profile without showing my home address?
- Yes. Set it up as a service-area business. Google takes the address to verify you and then hides it, showing your service area instead. This is the correct setup for trades who work at customers' premises.
- How long does verification take?
- A video review is usually days rather than weeks, though it can take longer at busy periods. Postcards take about two weeks. Until verification completes the profile does not appear in the map results.
- How many reviews do I need?
- There is no threshold. What matters is having more than the businesses you are competing with, getting them steadily rather than in one burst, and replying to them. A handful of recent genuine reviews beats a pile of old ones.
- Does the profile replace a website?
- No. It gets you into the map results; the website answers the questions somebody has once they have tapped through, and it is the only one of the two you actually own. They work best pointing at each other.
If you would rather somebody just did it
I build websites for self-employed tradesmen and small businesses across the UK: £249 to build, then £49.99 a month to host, maintain and update it. The sites I have built currently hold 97 page-one Google rankings between them.